Still, good on Guzzi, there has been a lot of new interest into the 750cc - 400 lb. type of bikes.

I like Triumphs. I almost bought a Triumph Scambler years ago but I couldnt get comfortable on the bike.

I heard the Guzzi on utube with Mistral pipes and it sounded so good. I researched the stories of people who bought the bike and wrote about the day to day experience of ownership. Its a push rod retro naked...not going to satisfy certain types. I had a BSA 650 and a Norton twin in my earlier days and I like the type.

I find the sitting position much more comfortable than my Honda 1100 sport tourer and with the slow twisty hills that I ride on, the lil' bike is just much more satisfying!

The V7 classic just has to have the clutch and throttle cable free play set up correctly and the little engine is a joy to play with. It is a small bike, light and agile with a great sound coming out of the pipes.

I think Guzzi did a great job of listening to the owners and updating the bike.

The saddlebags that I have are Craven fibreglass cases from the 1970's - no longer made and the company is still in limbo. A friend had these 'Golden Arrows' bags on his old Honda 550 four when he ran into a deer and totalled the bike. The bags were pretty beat up too, and left outside behind the woodshed for a dozen years or so, when I found them and started to fix em up.

I am almost done - handles and hardware in hand, still have to finish painting the final coat and doing the final assembly this winter. Lots of positive comments on the setup.

I am very curious looking at these pictures... what happens to the engine when these things fall over? Looking at the pictures I'm guessing that off the bat you'll have the spark plug boot / cable / terminal grind off, and then the valve cover.

Looking on google, I see a handful of references to an engine bar available, but is the above a fair assessment?

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There are lots of things that owners do.

There are several vendors that sell crashbars/highway bars, and the bars intended for the Breva 750 and Nevada 750 will work.

There are also head guards that mount to the valve cover bolts and provide the same function as sliders do on sportsbikes.

They aren't going to get much more out of an air-cooled motor while meeting current emissions regulations.

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Ya, I figured ~60hp was pretty much max for an air cooled 750cc twin that still has to meet the regs. I think it's feasible with FI and a good fast burn 4 valve head design. Maybe then can use an "alternate" mapping to pass regs .... hint hint..... like some other companies do. The smaller manufacturers can get away with some stuff the bigger companies can't, witness what Husky and KTM do with their dual sport bikes. It's my understanding they relax the regs for small companies and Guzzi certainly fits that requirement.

If it had 55hp and solid torque I'm pretty sure most people would be pretty satisfied.

I'm not sure about going all the way back to drum brakes though. It looks like the bike at the show has a disc rear brake. I see the point in the visuals but I like the way discs look well enough to have the modern functionality.

I looked at buying a V7 Classic, a friend of mine owned an original in 1970 while I had a BSA. The Guzzi braked , didn't deposit oil, handled, and boy could it pull. I eventually bought a new LeMans III which was great except for the tickets. As you can tell I'm older (57). The reason I'm writing is regarding the Classics engine and lack of power that been mentioned on this tread. The 750 cc engine is based on the old 350/500 original design. It and the same era Moto Morini 350/500 V-Twins shared a common cylinder head design. It is of the "Heron" design. The valves are flush to the head surface. The combustion occurs in the dished out part of the piston. They said at the time it was to promote better fuel economy. Fact was it saved on machining/manufacturing cost. The head is still used today limiting any large power increases. The lack of valve angle the culprit. If Moto Guzzi redesign the head, then some up graded forks, and shocks on the bike I would buy one....